Playing It By Ear
by Aiko Isari
Summary: 02/Xros Wars. Hunters AU She is silver. She is a flower born in a world of darkness by the light. And she is the only one who can help find the answers the Child of Light is looking for. Temporary Hiatus
1. Part One: Chapter 1: Down By the Sea

_**A/N:** _Hello! I know, I'm insane, but the deadline is a month away and if I don't post it today, I won't do it ever. This is for the random!AU contest, and I was given the animal transformation AU. I really hope I've interpreted this thing in an interesting way.

Spoilers for the endings of both 02 and the Hunters arc, though they aren't all immediate.

**Warnings:** blood, death, coarse language, violence (T-rated), memory issues, screwing with timelines, and mild romance. Nothing too strong.

Please enjoy, and let me know what you think!

**EDIT 03-15-14:** Letting people know this will be an AU of the Hunters arc, so while spoilers still apply, if you haven't seen it, there will be spoilers as it goes on. Thanks!

* * *

_Chapter One: Down by the Sea_

The grey dreams never ended.

She could recall them more clearly now, monochromatic, filled with the choppy notes of unhappy waves and the sound of a lighthouse creaking through its motions. The black light swung over her head and moved on. Dimly, she remembered that the lighthouse had been destroyed a long time ago. But that didn't matter. This world had brought it back. It seemed like that was only natural for a place like this, such a cold, unchanging place.

Hikari remembered that after the first few times, her feet were left bare, squelching in the sand and picking up rocks that didn't hurt. She was never happy there, never sad either, but instead stayed in that etheral place that dreamers went.

The only difference was: she was sure this place was real, and had been there enough times to know that she wasn't in her bed tonight.

Her brother would be furious.

But for now, that wasn't important.

She walked onward, feet drenched in the wet sand, skin and hair and clothes so many shades of grey and black that she couldn't name them all. Hikari didn't look around. She knew the dilapidated, uneven fence posts would creak in the wind if she didn't watch them and the salty air would crust her normally brown hair if she let it run through or flinched at it ghosting her fingers.

Yagami Hikari, after years of well-kept silences and voices and death, had learned to endure.

So she walked onward, head held as high as she dared, shoulders straight in a bravery she could only emulate in the real, human world. Alone, it was much easier for her to be strong. Because nobody thought she couldn't be. Her feet scraped against a rock, and she couldn't help but look down to see her right foot glistening with blood, the only color she could see. She looked at it with dismay, and kept right on walking, because somehow, there was somewhere she had to be tonight.

"_Come…"_

The denizens had smelled her out already.

"_Save us… save us from the demon…"_

"I can't."

There was no demon to save them from, other than themselves. So, she continued to walk forward, ignoring the whispers that grew into wails, shouting her name until it was the only word in her vocabulary.

"_Light! LIGHT!"_

"_TRAITOR OF DARKNESS!"_

"_Traitor!"_

_I can't betray what I don't belong to._ All she said aloud was "Not tonight."

* * *

The girl walked on until the salty air swallowed her.

Yagami Taichi awoke from his catnap at his desk to find his sister gone.

It wasn't the typical 'your-biology-cramming-should have-been-three-hours-ago' gone, but gone as in vanished, poofed from her curling around her precious two cats like an attempt at angelic floor-napping.

While Miko was too old to do more than paw him and moan out a meow, Tailmon had more the strength to climb up and scratch him awake, hissing in indecipherable inhuman cries as she got to doing when she was so far upset there were no words for it.

"Where?" he asked, and regretted it when she narrowed her eyes, calculating in the way that said it was obvious to a man with _sense_. But Tailmon controlled fury almost as well as Hikari, and it was swallowed and put to the side. He sniffed the air himself, watching the way her nose twitched endlessly, like the scent was a haywire radio signal for a poor antenna.

The smell of the too-distant sea, the scent of rotted fish corpses and overgrown squid.

Takeru had informed him of it, of that smell and the coldness of the air. Beaches were meant to be warm.

But this was not the beach.

Taichi's fingers instantly grabbed the D-Terminal at his desk, barely checking the numbers on his Digital Clock. As crazy early as it was, he knew every single person would be up in arms the second they saw the email.

After all, no one wanted the wrath of Yagami Taichi if they didn't.

"Come on, we gotta be quick and quiet," he said, though his own whisper was pretty much anybody else's (barring a certain gogglehead named Motomiya Daisuke) normal voice. "We might be able to get to her and pull her out."

Tailmon , like she didn't know this. She allowed herself to be picked up, tensing for a few moments, long enough to make Taichi frown when she finally did relax. He wasn't Hikari, and that was fine, but after the time the family had spent together… one would think she would trust him more at least.

Then again, old habits died hard.

And so did pedophile vampires.

"Agumon, hurry up!"

"Ladders are hard…"

He supposed that would be a good point, but his overprotective brother brain didn't really want to hear it, especially with that loud crash as the Digimon landed on his yellow tail. Any other time, he would have rushed over, hiding laughter. But at the moment, he snuffled any snickers for when his sister was not quite possibly in mortal danger again (Why couldn't Hikari just be in danger from _boys_ and _perverts_? She had to get weird, otherworldly creatures fancying her.) and hop into his shoes without tying them, D-Terminals and Digivices shoved into one obviously drooping pocket.

"Come on!" Tailmon hissed, nose to the air like a radar. "The smell's fading, come _on_!"

So not only was his sister probably sleepwalking, but she was sleepwalking in and out of dimensional _planes_.

Koushiro better be able to translate how the hell _that _worked.

As he ran down the stairs, his terminal beeped and there were about six messages saying people were out and about in one form or another. Ken's message in particular sounded horrified and he reflected that telling the resident introvert who had too many sibling losses (yes, he _did_ remember that little timespan of problems) and parental issues that Hikari was poofing in and out of their time-space may have been a bad idea.

_Then again… Demon's there._

"Taichi-san!"

Takeru was already outside of his apartment, face steely and blue eyes as icy as his brother's on a bad afternoon. "What's happening?"

"She's phasing or something," he said, secretly wondering how the other had managed to beat _Daisuke _here, but decided he didn't want to know. "Tailmon's still smelling her on Earth."

"Most of the time," the cat said with a scowl. She leapt down, sniffing again. "I need a better sense of smell…"

"You can use mine," Patamon offered, flying from the comfort of Takeru's hat to the air.

"Her Digivice?" Takeru asked. Taichi held up the pink D-3, which now that he looked had a weak spark emanating from its screen. "How does she keep doing this?" the blond muttered to the air and Taichi swore he detected envy and exasperation in that, but had no time to ponder it. Tailmon had taken off, racing down the way, dodging drunk pedestrians and cheerful college students.

"After her!"

God it was pointless to say that but Taichi sure as hell hoped Takeru could type and run at the same time.

Cause he didn't want to waste his time.

* * *

She was a little bit cold.

Hikari easily shook it off, though it only made the fog cling further. But at this point, there was no going back. Her feet bled too much and toes ached from lack of warmth and bitter winds.

The voices were growing quieter, or maybe they just couldn't speak to her from this distance. She couldn't wonder because while her legs were starting to ache, even in the dream, she still had a long way to go to get there. Wherever "there' just so happened to be.

She could hear no voices now, as her fingers touched the bark of a tree, but she could hear a little voice singing. A little girl-boy voice, too young and sweet to be anything but a lost child. It stirred memories, that voice, memories of a time where she didn't think she was weak or strong.

_I want to whistle again._

But that was a dream as much as this, and her old toy had been scattered to the winds, much like a pink hat.

Forward, yes. Forward, through the grey.

She blinked suddenly and the fog was clear. Around her was nothing but trees, trees and hard earth below her feet, a path twisted over and carved inward by roots. It was painful to the touch, and she suspected there would be blisters to pop after tonight, if she made it from this place alive and well.

Yet… her heart had begun to thrum, excitement replacing the fog with a haze of red and pink and even a little. Perhaps today was the beginning of something beautiful instead of dreadful. The dreams had always been painful, cries for her return to a world she had never belonged in, one humans didn't seem to belong in.

The Dark Ocean didn't really understand that. It was always hungry.

To her ears, the song sounded hungrier. No, it sounded lonely. Lonely and lost… what a sad story.

Though… weren't there many lost children? Why would this one seek her? Her soft hands and weak feet… what could they do? What could she do?

Hikari stopped walking, and closed her eyes to listen. The song remained oft, but it grew louder the more she went to the left. It never broke into words, or became unbearable, but the repetition gave each note a metallic ring.

She noted, with sudden clarity, that this was a lullaby.

As soon as she understood this, something else became clear: she was not alone.

Her eyes traveled around the nearby wood, until they alighted upon someone's form against the back of a tree. White light, the only white that she had ever seen in this place, even on her own skin, was washing over the figure, and it made them hard to see. She took slow steps forward, and the outline of the faraway person became clear. She stopped walking, lifting her hands to her mouth.

_Onii-chan?_

But why would he be here? Had she brought him here?

No, looking closer, it wasn't. This person's hair was mildly neater, and smaller. Thin too, and with ragged breaths that would never leave her brother's lips unless Piemon had thrown him around all over again. And he was dead. She had seen it; he was dead. Or lost. Yet Hikari was relieved. This was not Taichi. Taichi, when she had been home, how long ago that had been, had been all right.

This person was not all right. Red was glistening below them in the white light. Their breathing rushed, harsh, making tiny puffs of air visible from even this distance. Hikari crossed the rest of the distance, trepidation skin that she touched was cold, wet from what could be seawater.

Beneath his injured fingers, the song thrummed from within the shell of a large egg, a very familiar egg to her young hands. The song continued, voice still sweet and now like a siren, a beautiful siren voice.

Looking at the egg, her veins chilled to ice and she pulled her hands away from near the human's own, as if the hands would bring her into that other world, that world with the song.

She did not want to go into another dream. That would be too many to wake up from.

But before she could step away, one hand wrapped around her wrist.

* * *

The park, the park, had to be the park.

He hadn't touched the playground in years.

Taichi was grateful Tailmon went running right past it, racing past the jungle gym where five years ago a girl's dress had hit the dirt, hands scratched by woodchips. He forced himself not to give it a second glance, and was thankful Takeru kept his lips shut tight with anxiety. By that time, Daisuke had caught up with them, Ken at his side. The former was shifting, fiddling with his D-3 and looking around like there was something he could punch that could take this all by storm, that could make this all okay.

Hikari had been missing for god knew how long, and there was no one to protect her, just herself. Just Tailmon's desperate nose searching hard.

"Daisuke," he said, stopping and searching for more air. "Any… luck…?"

The other shook his head, brushing the old goggles down again and moving like the younger Yagami could just magically appear on the nearby swings.

They could only hope.

"Iori couldn't escape the apartment," he said with a scowl. "His mum is furious with you and me for the record. I tried tellin' her but you know, she's as stubborn as he is. Miyako got her siblings all over it, and she owes her sister for taking her place o n the night shift. She said she's running the Digital World now with Sora-san, in case…" Daisuke shrugged, looking forlorn. "You know. In case."

Yeah, Taichi knew all about in case. "Koushiro?"

"Asking Gennai," Takeru said immediately, thumbing text onto the D-Terminal screen in response to something. "With Jyou-san. Onii-san is in the Digital World too. Do you…" He hesitated, and envy warred with sense on the blonde boy's face. "Do you want me to go with him?"

Taichi gave a raised eyebrow. "Do you want to go?" Hell, Taichi himself was only standing still to breathe. Tailmon was bristling near his feet and that fact was enough to urge him onward.

"I want to find HIkari-chan," Takeru said, and he looked at Daisuke. Taichi saw his junior nod back, and never did he feel so proud.

Then Tailmon raced away, and the choice was taken out of their hands as the four boys went hurrying after her.

None of the boys noticed that their surroundings were steadily losing color, and them with it.

All except Ken, who held his partner more tightly against his chest.

* * *

"Le-Let go of me!"

Fear moved before concern for once in her head and she was pulling her wrist away from his feeble grasp. Her bare feet scratched against the dirt and splintered wood and now the pain registered. She wanted to scream but before she could open her mouth, the person's voice croaked.

"Wa...it…"

She did, but only because his voice was so faint, she had to hear him again.

"Puh-lease… wa..it…."

Hikari turned, and all of the fear was washed away with concern and she hurried back over, kneeling and clasping the wet fingers. There was no ambulance, no way to reach one with pocketless pajamas and no phone. "What can I do?" she whispered. This was a human, not a Digimon. Her light would do nothing… wouldn't it?

Not that she even knew if she could use it again.

She looked at the blood, which in her panic, she had noticed had begun to spread. "Where is the wound?" Hikari pulled herself to grasp the egg, the song having grown unusually quiet at her words. her gaze moved to focus on the face of the person, who had opened eyes the color of a stormcloud to look at her. "Hey… please don't give up. Someone will find us...and bring us home. Someone will save us."

He gave a set of rushed, ragged breaths and Hikari wondered if someone would find them fast enough. "Tailmon…" she whispered to the air. "Onii-chan… Takeru-kun… please… I'll be stronger. I will fight and fight and do whatever it takes… but _please_ help us... this person is _dying_…"

She would do anything for strength. Anything that it took now.

The fingers closed around her wrist again, and the grey eyes were resting on her, once sun-tanned skin translucent. "Please…" the boy croaked. "Help… me…"

"I don't have a fir-"

The boy shook his head with enough vehemence as an injured person could. "Help… me… help… them."

The egg on his stomach began to glow red then, and a pink light blossomed from her own fingers.

The eyes on her were soft and sad and his grip pulled her hand to rest on the egg. "I'm… sorry…"

The lights swirled into white and a warmth flooded her skin and bones and out again, her world spiraling to black.

_Help me..._

* * *

Tailmon stopped, ears twitching for a sound they couldn't try to hear. "Tailmon?" The cat hissed to the air, Holy Ring swirling down her tail as it lashed.

The sound was too quiet, like the radio was about to change tracks. She stopped and listened, ear shifting again. "Hikari!"

Something answered her. It was a feeling, not a sound or a scent, but the feeling. The faint feeling that she remembered as telling her not to kill Hikari, or the urge to hug the tiny, weak girl in her claws and accept her soothing touch.

Her Hikari.

The other humans meant nothing. She had to go.

And go she did, through the grey trees and black leaves and seawater-

Oh no.

"STOP!" she screamed. The humans did. "Where have we gone?"

Now they looked. Now they listened and saw and backed away.

"How the hell did we get here?" Takeru whispered, pulling Patamon off of his hatless head. The mammal was tense, paws clenched like fists. Daisuke and Taichi looked only confused, and that was a good thing, she liked to think, good because this meant they might have an easier time in this place.

_...elp...e…_

Tailmon began to run, because there was no point in thinking about anything too deeply when the important person wasn't here.

_H….lp...m…_

"Hikari!"

"Hikari-chan!"

Pink light washed over her fur and for a moment she thought she was going to evolve but instead she just floated as her partner's voice echoed in her soul.

_Help me…_

Then her paws were back on solid, normal-smelling earth, and her human was laying a few feet away with bloodied hands and hollow eyes. On the other side of her head sat a red device and a slowly cracking egg.

The rose eyes rested on her. "Ta...il...mon..."

She was unconscious a second later.


	2. Chapter 2: Up By the Altar

_**A/N:**_ Hey guys! Thanks for your patience. Someone commented to me that the AU wasn't exactly clear in this one. It kind of shows up more and more over time. So don't worry too much! That said, I hope chapter three takes less time. By the way, if you want a feeling on how this story is going (not exact, mind you) please read the manga World Embryo. It's a really great series as it is but it is also one of the things I read before I came up with this story. Enjoy and please read and review! I want to hear from you guys!**  
**

* * *

_Chapter Two: Up by the Altar_

_She was small, floating at the edge of a slowly forming space. The eyes she was looking through were blurry, unfocused blobs of color fading in and out. She thought she knew what they were if she squinted, but she didn't want to squint, she wanted to see. _

_Someone else wanted to see too, and their hand on her head tightened its grip. She opened her mouth to make a noise but something dug into her neck and silenced her. She tried to jerk away but the hand, yes it was a hand, she recognized the roughness, someone she knew, who had callused hands from hard work. Was she fidgeting too much? Was that why his hand was there?_

_Whatever the reason, she wasn't sure she liked it very much. His hands were cold, and she couldn't move to see his face. (Her mind -memories?- told her it was a man.) There was no other pain, just staring, staring at a void that might have had a shape, maybe a voice._

_But the voice wasn't loud enough for her to hear and her own words were being swallowed in a rush of liquid up her mouth. _

_Maybe she was drowning, and the hand wasn't a hand at all._

_Something cold and slimy touched her skin, and she did cry out now, the fear screaming out in her heart as blood rose in her mouth._

Where am I?

...

_'In the aftermath of a great war, a parasite rose from the Digital Sea. It took its fellows into its many arms and played many songs. But what it was unaware of was its own loneliness, merely the gaping, hollow void that its stomach was. Desperate for the void to be filled, it began to devour. Like greed, it fed until it was no longer satisfied by the dead, but with the time of the living...'_

"Uh, ya know," a hoarse voice interrupted. "Not that that speech ain' pretty for the archives or nothin'... but Wisemon, how does that help _anything _for right now?"

The librarian smiled with his invisible mouth. "Why, Shoutmon, are you doubting me? Your dear friend?"

"You've been blabbering on for three hours," grumbled the other voice. "And I don't see how this is really gettin' us any closer to understandin' that nonsense we wen' through."

"Patience is a virtue you still lack, my King," Wisemon said, now smirking.

From the wooden chair, the dragon waved an arm in mild amusement. "Had enough patience to not kill you yet, didn't I?"

"And how long is that going to last?" Wisemon said with a dry chuckle.

Shoutmon shrugged. "Until we find Taiki," he said simply, crossing his scarred arms. "I can't give up until then. None of us can."

Wisemon sighed, placing the next book back on the shelf. "It's been a _year_, my King."

"What's your point?" The red dragon pulled himself off of the chair. "If you say _give up, _I'm gonna punch the crap out of you. I really will. He didn't give up on us, and there are still people waitin' for him. I ain't gonna stop looking just like that." He sighed, heading towards the exit of the room. "I just _can't_."

Wisemon watched him go and then paused. "I'll see what I can do about that portal to the human world then?"

"You'd better!" the dragon shouted, heading down the hallway.

It was a castle where the walls were too high and everything was too grand, but a king needed a castle and that was what Shoutmon was: a King.

Funny how being at this place left a foul taste in his mouth, like biting into a lemon

"Derryaaahh!"

Shoutmon sighed. He could not even get back to his quarters without a poorly done ambush. He casually stepped to the side as a blue blur went slamming into his floor. He grimaced at the small crater and shook his head. "Oi, Gumdramon! Do you mind not always breaking tile whenever you fail at smacking me around?"

"You aren't supposed to dodge my hits, Your Majesty!" The blue dragon sat up slowly, brushing itself off as its large, hammer tail shrank down to its normal size. It gave him a mocking smirk. "Unless you're scared to take it!"

Shoutmon raised an eyebrow and with a swish of one three-fingered hand, summoned his mic and slammed it into the smaller dragon's chest, knocking him across the hall. "Well," he drawled. "Considering I can easily do _that_, guess we know how accurate that statement was, don't we?"

"Why you-" Gumdramon threw himself forward, only to miss Shoutmon again. "Quit dodging, Your Majesty!"

Shoutmon snorted. "Why the hell would I do that? You make enough noise to wake humans through dimensions. If I couldn't dodge that, I might as well hand over the crown and be done with it." He banished his weapon. "Train up some more before you try that one again."

"Then you train me!" Gumdramon was back up again. He really could admire the kid's enthusiasm when he wasn't bashing down Shoutmon's door at the wrong hours or pissing him off at inopportune moments. "You're the king! I could get stronger easily if you did!"

Shoutmon shook his head, as he always did. "Strength ain't something you just get magically, you moron. It's something you earn, something you pour yourself into. If you just have it, you're real weak and it won't last. I've told you this-"

Gumdramon scowled. "Yeah, a hundred times! I'm still stronger than all of those punks outside the walls! And you're letting them get away with thieving and murder and all kinds of stuff while I'm a good guy and I'm stuck here!"

_Yeah, a real great guy. _Shoutmon snorted. "Awful hypocritical of a guy whose best friend is a thief!" At Gumdramon's grimace, he laughed. "What, you thought I didn't know? You guys make more noise than one of my screams. Don't joke around." He started to head back where he was originally going. "Someone like you complaining about injustice with your happy ending…" he rolled his eyes. "How annoyin'."

Taiki would be sheepish and nice about it, being able to calm down some fiery nutjob like Gumdramon. He'd empathize, understand, all of that.

Shoutmon was a good guy, he knew that, but he was also a hothead. And seeing hotheads do stupid things for no reason _really _pissed him off.

"Damn it, Taiki…" he muttered. "I need some sanity like hell. Where did you _go_, man?"

The walls never answered, and he never heard a single song.

It was annoying. Why couldn't humans make a melody too?

...

Fuzz.

A weight on her chest. Heavy. Soft. Warm.

Soft noises a few feet away. Her fingers twitched over scratchy,stiff material. A thin sheet, perhaps? She moved her fingers again and they stuck, as though covered with syrup. Syrup that smelled like metal. That was not syrup.

That was blood.

Why did she have blood on her hands?

She clenched her hand and her fingers stuck together for a moment. She quickly unfurled them, but the feeling didn't fade.

"Hikari!"

"Hikari-chan!"

So much noise. Was it her name they were saying? Could they stop being so loud about it? Her head was suddenly splitting, a shiver in its center making her imagine bile in her mouth and her teeth glued shut. A pressure was on her heart, not the warm presence of before, but a great, deep weight like the bottom of the sea.

The bottom of a dark sea.

Was she still in that Ocean?

The very thought tore her mouth open in a cry of pain and she rolled onto her side. The pressure lessened and the weight fell with a surprised yelp. Her eyes opened, vision blurry as she saw grey and white then a rush of brown.

"Hikari, stop!" You're all so noisy. What do you want? The anger in her own heart puzzled her but also made her sleepy. She wanted to sleep again. But where would she go if she slept? Where was she right now?

"_You're safe right now."_

She didn't know the voice, or even where it was coming from, but relief rushed at the sound of it. She didn't want to think of the important details of why there was one, but she did want to think about breathing, So she focused on that, exhaling heavily with her eyes closed. The panic began to fade as her heartbeat slowed from rapid hammering to slow downbeats. Hikari only slit her eyes open then, and she came face to face with a white cat.

For a moment, her heart almost shrieked with alarm, but then it relaxed. It was Tailmon. Yes, she knew Tailmon. Tailmon was her partner, Yes… but why had she forgotten that?

"_My fault. Sorry." _

The voice again. It wasn't very expressive, or maybe it was just as tired as she felt now that the adrenaline had worn off. For some reason, like a song that never got tiresome, it seemed like the latter. She did not quite care why, choosing to open her eyes and allow the world to come into focus.

She glimpsed muddy blurs of color and heard voices try to come into focus.

They were saying her name. They were calling for her. Yes, that must have been it. But it should be much easier to hear and see them. So why couldn't she?

"_I did something reckless. And I needed you to help me do it. This is the effects kicking in, I guess."_

Beneath the explanation was an apology, jumbled and confused and maybe a bit frightened. Was instinct a driving force in whatever she had done?

"It's okay," she said, and shifted when she realized she had been speaking aloud. The voices suddenly began to clear, no longer simple noises like rain falling into puddles, but words again. Her name, her purpose, her life.

Well, that, and the sound of something cracking.

For some reason, she rolled to face it, and her vision cleared to look at a large egg, about the size of her torso.

_A DigiEgg, _her mind recognized, and the voice let out a faint whistle.

"_Is that what this is called?"_

She gave a mental assent and her vision sharpened fully, giving her a small bit of dizziness in return. As soon as she could see, Hikari felt pain, a ceaseless throb that started from her chest and expanded through her hands, like she was just a giant bruise with eyes. She clenched her teeth in pain for a moment, looking at the egg. Its white and green shell was cracked, like a fault line in the earth. The crack glowed a gentle red.

"Hikari?"

She couldn't really lift her head but she blinked in acknowledgement. She knew that voice, now if her memories weren't so scrambled, she could know who it was. The speaker dropped over onto the side she was rolled onto, staring at her with too-big blue eyes. "Nnh… Tail-mon?"

The creature let out a sigh of relief. No, not creature, cat. What was the matter with her?

"_Your memories are going to be scrambled for a little while. I'm sorry about that. Mine are the same way."_

_What happened?_

She didn't get an answer.

…

Taichi watched his sister sit up gingerly, each minute movement making her cringe a little. Anger and protectiveness boiled up in his pores but he kept himself as quiet he could because the look on her face was adult in intensity, in focus. He knew Takeru would recognize it and hurt if he saw it but that was why he had made sure he and Daisuke were out of the room, calling friends and making sure everyone was up-to-date.

He raised a hand, stopping Ken from leaving the room and either getting the others or the nurse. Neither would end well. She still looked, despite her clear intent to wake up, disjointed, like sneezing wrong would send her back into that panicked dream daze again. Ken sat back, frowning deeply and twitching like a slightly startled rabbit. Taichi still kept his mouth shut as Hikari's brain worked slowly on the concept of Tailmon. Gingerly, she offered trembling arms to the cat and, with the same timid concern, the cat went to her lap and curled there.

Only when Hikari had begun to stroke her partner's back and Tailmon was purring her relief did Taichi open his mouth. "How are you feeling?"

The question evoked a jerky movement of the head, and it took a moment to process properly until Hikari looked up at him, inquisitive in her wide, almost too-bright eyes. Did she not know who he was? Had she not known who _Tailmon _was? She worked her mouth for one slow minute before she croaked out. "Horrible."

"Can you hold a paper cup?" The question would have sounded absurd if it weren't for the fact that his sister actually didn't look _sure_, and the last time she hadn't been able to hold paper was a time he didn't like to think about.

But she nodded, a bit more of a bob than a straight nod, and drank almost greedily. He looked away pointedly, only for his eyes to catch her bandaged bare feet that she had come in with blistery and red, much like her hands, which were also wrapped.

She drained the tiny cup too fast and finally, Taichi gestured for Ken to get the nurse, sitting back down in the plastic chair.

Hikari licked her lips and stared at him with confusion. "You're in the hospital," he finally said. "You sleepwalked out of our apartment halfway back to Hikarigaoka. If you hadn't been caught up in the park, you might have made it out of the city by sunrise." Taichi didn't mention the fact that most of that walk had been in another dimension but somehow, Hikari seemed to know that anyway. Her expression seemed to lose focus again.

"Someone else called me there," she said in a small voice. It was full of shame, like she could just fight off any evil voice that called her name as persistently as the Dark Ocean did and simply hadn't. Tailmon tensed in her lap as she spoke, but calmed at the gentle touch at her ears. "They called for my help."

"Didn't that Ocean do the same thing?" Taichi asked, recalling what Takeru had explained to him months before, if vaguely.

Hikari shook her head slowly, eyes beginning to scan the room. Unconsciously, Taichi's eyes flitted to the other side of the room, by the door. She didn't notice this time. "This was similar at first… but the Ocean doesn't sing."

That was all she could say, because the nurse arrived and began to examine her, slow and gentle. Taichi noticed Hikari flinch from the man's touch every so often, and he hoped it was from pain. Takeru and Daisuke were peering through the room window and only when the man stood and admonished them to let her rest and wait for their parents did the two boys come in. Takeru gently cradled the egg, like was afraid it was

Hikari's eyes saw the egg and seemed to spark.

"That was it," she said softly. "That was where the song came from."

Takeru glanced at Taichi, who visibly frowned. He didn't want to just give it back to her, if it had caused her to end up like this…

But Hikari reached out to it, eyes bright and warm. "Please…" she breathed.

Takeru shook his head and her hands dropped, crestfallen. She just stared at Tailmon for a few moments, smoothing down her fur and licking her lips.

Then there was a loud crack from his arms and her eyes shot up as the egg cracked again. It shook and shook, floating in the air to shine a blinding light.

When the light vanished, a naked toddler was sitting up at Hikari's bandaged feet, mess of silver hair over almost-chalky skin.

"Neh!" exclaimed the toddler, only to fall forwards onto hands and knees. "Bweh?"

In Hikari's mind, the voice gave a sigh of relief. "_Thank god she's okay."_


	3. Chapter 3: What It Looks Like

**_A/N:_ **Hello, it's done. Finally. Will be aiming to get the next chapter up before July. I apologize if this chapter is a little bit confusing. There is a lot of groundwork to cover and this chapter is kind of for the heavier stuff. Kind of. Next chapter, we'll be jumping back into the Xros Wars side of things and probably expanding on Cademon. Haven't decided yet. Also, he is mine. Can't wait to write his scenes a bit more.

Anyway, enjoy and let me know what you think!

* * *

_Chapter Three: What It Looks Like_

"Did a human just hatch from a DigiEgg?"

Hikari acknowledged Daisuke's question with a small nod, even though she honestly had no idea. She raised her hands to the child, trying to smile. In blind innocence, it raised its hands back. "Beh!" It cried, waving its fists. Hikari felt her heart shake, like a wall she hadn't even noticed in her heart before had crumbled. The child made another noise and with trembling hands, she reached out to it again.

"Her," corrected a voice from the floor. "Tomoko's a she." Hikari started, glancing at the others, who were turning towards the foot of the bed. "Ah… sorry," the voice said. "It's sticky on the floor because of the egg… hold on." There was a snuffling noise and a sigh. "This is the weirdest thing," they said.

Then, small claws tried to scramble up from the floor, grasping up on the bed. "I really wish I had hands right now," the voice said, and then it clicked in Hikari's head. She leaned over, wincing and grabbed the small appendages much to the confusion of 'Tomoko' until she pulled the matted, wet creature up. Then the child gurgled, delighted.

No, not creature, _Digimon. _

"What the hell is going on?" Daisuke snapped, thankfully not loud enough to be heard over the door.

"Your guess is as good as ours," said the new Digimon, who looked down at its form and grimaced. "I think I need a towel," it said, and Hikari giggled a little. She then made a noise of disgust at the mess on her hands and the Digimon blushed. "Sorry about that."

She quickly set him down near Tomoko, who instant started clinging to the scales, albeit sticking more than clinging. The Digimon squirmed and Tailmon took the opportunity to sniff at it. "I've never smelled this one," she admitted a few moments later.

"To be fair, i wouldn't want to smell me either," the Digimon muttered. "I'm covered in egg."

Daisuke bristled. "Would ya tell us who you are and what you want?" he snapped before Ken could stop him. Out of the corner of her eye, Hikari saw Ken sigh, but the other two seemed to be siding with Daisuke, looking suspiciously at the newcomers. Tomoko began to sniffle and Hikari reached over, patting her head. "Hikari-chan, be careful."

"Honestly, Daisuke, she's a toddler, she's fine," Taichi said, kneeling down to look at her. Tomoko cooed at once, as though distracted by the giant mass that was his hair. Hikari hoped that it was about his hair. "Even Baby Digimon aren't exactly dangerous."

"They shoot bubbles of acid!" Daisuke protested, and this produced amused snickering from Takeru. who finally relaxed his shoulders.

"And the bubbles hurt absolutely no one, trust me." Hikari giggled and Tomoko mimicked her, clapping her messy hands. "Anyway," Takeru continued, looking at the small creature, dragon really, and it lifted its pale red head to look at them. It looked as haggard as Hikari felt, but seemed willing to help anyway. "He has a point. Who are you? Did you make Hikari-chan like this?"

Like this. Like there was something wrong, like Hikari hadn't been wrong or _strange _beforehand. A strange dull ache of resentment rose in her throat and she swallowed a bitter bile back down. She knew that wasn't what Takeru meant.

The Digimon picked at the drying goop with his nails and shook his head. "I think I did, but I'm afraid I do not remember much. At least, nothing solid. I think I was… human before...but that last memory… it's full of red light."

Hikari started, remembering trembling hands and red light.

"_Help me help her."_

"You were that boy," she said and the dragon blinked.

"That's what I remember," he said and yawned, curling back up on the broken sheet. Before he could doze off, he blinked grey eyes hazily. "No, one other thing too," he said in a sigh. "Cademon. That's who I am now. Good night."

His head lolled and he promptly went to sleep and if it weren't for the fact that Tomoko almost fell off the hospital bed an attempt to grab him, Hikari probably would have kept giggling about it until she couldn't breathe.

Regardless, the boys' faces were just so _affronted_.

Now, how to explain this to the doctors?

* * *

As it turned out, it wasn't explained at all. They were all simply hid, though the real trouble was to get the child to stop giggling from under the plastic chair Taichi was sitting on. Which would have been easier if _Hikari _had stopped giggling herself, but she thought the nurse was considering her delirious.

How was that possible?

Taichi had, with reluctance, left to let their parents know the situation and Takeru and Daisuke had gone to make sure Ken made it to the bus. If she could be called, so could he. Guilt and fear welled up in her stomach at the thought. She insisted Taichi turn off the lights when he left, though with only the monitors and the waning moon through the window

She thought the darkness would go away someday, or simply become less frightening. With Miyako-san, she had been able to fight back. With BelialVamdemon gone, the darkness of the world should have lost its interest in her. At least, she had hoped that. It was one thing to drift there, but another for-

"Cademon, or the human of him, called me." She murmured. "At least he wasn't trying to hurt me." She looked at the dragon, curled in the chair next to Tailmon's watchful eyes on her.

"The road to hell is paved with good intentions, Hikari," Tailmon said quietly, looking away from the Digimon towards the sleeping Tomoko. She had curled against Hikari's chest and, try as she might, Hikari couldn't get rid of her. "He wanted help, and he hurt you to get it."

She remembered red light and thought. "He didn't mean to," she said. "i don't think he wanted to."

Tailmon sighed. "Hikari, I… I don't like this. He had to pull you into the Dark Ocean to get you to hear him and you know what that place does. You know what it wants with you. It wants to-"

"To breed me," Hikari said, fingers clenching on the new sheet. "The things in there will call me queen, but that's not what I'll actually be. But that wasn't what he was trying to do. I can feel it. The Ocean was just... It dragged us there. He was hurt, but he asked for someone to save her, save what was in the egg."

"Not everyone who seeks help for another life is a good person," Tailmon said softly, looking over to her partner.

"Wizarmon was," Hikari said softly. "The me at eight was stronger than the me now. If I want to be able to understand what happened, I need to remember what she lost. I don't want to hide behind others for strength anymore."

"You aren't hiding from anyone!"

Hikari shook her head. "I wouldn't be here right now, if I had my own strength. So I, I'm going to believe in them. Believing in Wizarmon brought me you. Please Tailmon!" Hikari smiled sleepily. "Believe in me now."

Tailmon had unconsciously tensed, raising her claws at the mention of her friend. She lowered them now and her front legs hung helplessly at her sides. "I don't understand, Hikari," she said, voice curling around the words. "But, if you want to trust them, I'll follow you. I don't have anyone else."

"Yes you do," Hikari murmured. "You always do."

Tailmon didn't answer but her shoulders lowered when Cademon's breathing slowed again.

She couldn't trust those two, not yet.

Maybe, not ever.

* * *

The others didn't return until the following afternoon, by which time, she had been cleared from the hospital with strict orders to wear the required shoes and not go to school for at least three days.

Still exhausted, Hikari was in no mood to disobey any doctor of any kind, not even to stop Daisuke from having Chibimon inspect Cademon like he was going to eat her hand. She appreciated Daisuke-kun for it, but Tailmon had already done the same thing.

Not that she approved either.

Cademon seemed not to mind at any rate, sitting on the head of the carefully toddling Tomoko, who grinned with her small, growing teeth at every single thing she could see, including the old clothes Taichi had brought for her to wear an hour ago. (It was interesting to see that Ken was the only one who could get them actually _on _her body instead of in their face, though she chalked that down to Takeru laughing at the attempts of her brother and Daisuke-kun instead of helping.) She had tried to grab Chibimon more than once, but her hands were slow and clumsy, and Chibimon quickly retreated to Daisuke's head.

"Her hands aren't nice, Daisuke," the Digimon protested.

Daisuke scratched behind his partner's neck. "Well, little kids are like that Chibimon. I'm surprised she's walking. Not even holdin' Hikari-chan's hand or anything." As though she understood, Tomoko tugged on Hikari's slim fingers, giving her the chance to smile down at the little girl.

"Well, she's probably a humanoid Digimon," Ken mused, idly pulling Minomon up from nearly falling out of his hood. "We all saw her hatch like one. It makes sense that baby Digimon are a fair bit ahead of human ones."

"You and Koushiro-san are going to have a field day over this," Takeru thought aloud and Ken blushed, smiling earnestly beneath the tinge of pink to his face.

He scratched his head. "Well, I can't say it's not fascinating. A humanoid Digimon hatching with a dragon Digimon at the same time. Two is kind of, you know,"

"Rare," Takeru suggested, thinking of Wallace.

"Yeah," Ken finished lamely, before looking up again. "But two entirely different Digimon is kind of a stretch. Have… have any of you seen humanoid Digimon before?"

"Wizarmon, Vamdemon, or Andromon would be the closest," Hikari said softly. "Not accounting for Archnemon and Mummymon, and well…" She shivered. "We saw what happened to them."

Cademon looked up as they all agreed, all but Daisuke, who accidentally caught Ken's eye. "What?" Daisuke said hurriedly, brow furrowing with mild frustration. Chibimon tugged at his goggles.

"You zoned out for a minute there," Taichi pointed out, putting his arms behind his head. "Thinking again?"

"Speak for yourself, Taichi-senpai!" Daisuke shot back, and they all laughed and let the topic drop. But Hikari tried to keep an eye on Daisuke the entire rest of the walk, and he seemed to notice, for his cheer didn't quite go back up to normal levels.

She wished she knew what was wrong. It hadn't been a great summer for them, true, with Jun being found a Chosen, and something, something happening in America, but she missed the Daisuke who was willing to talk.

Then again, she wouldn't want to talk to someone about secrets if they could jump dimensions by accident either.

She finally looked away to focus on keeping Tomoko upright, who looked like she wanted to nap midstep. Daisuke-kun would talk when he was ready, or when he thought he was ready. That was how he worked, after all.

* * *

"Daisuke…"

"What?"

Chibimon peered over his mass of hair. "Are you thinking about Nat-chan again?"

Daisuke grimaced and looked away and Chibimon made a noise of sorrow. He wished his Daisuke wouldn't hurt himself over this so much. "Mimi and Wallace are looking for her partner, Daisuke. We can't go back. You don't have the money and-"

"I know!" Chibimon waited and relaxed at the long exhale. "I know I can't… I just…"

"You don't think Tomoko is like Nat-chan, do you?" Sometimes he really thought Daisuke didn't see him as all that smart. But he was!

Daisuke sighed, stopping outside of the mansion. "I dunno, but she was kind of all clingy to Hikari-chan like Nat-chan was to us, and they've just met… but Cademon's there, so I dunno." He ran his fingers through his hair, causing Chibimon to jump off to the nearby rail. "I don't want Hikari-chan to see something that sad…"

"Daisuke…" The blue and white Digimon looked mildly disappointed this time, which made Daisuke flush.

"What?"

"Hikari-chan saw Wizarmon and a whole bunch of Digimon die for her," Chibimon said. His high little voice had taken on a serious note, something it just… didn't do as Chibimon most of the time. "She knew about Chocomon. Hikari-chan is strong. She's Tailmon's partner."

"She can't be strong all the time."

"Neither can Daisuke." Chibimon hopped to his shoulder. "That's why humans are having partners, so they can be weak sometimes and have someone always pull them up. I'm Daisuke's partner, right?"

The desperation in those last words was only audible to Daisuke, who didn't know how to answer it with anything other than a muttered "sorry…"

Chibimon giggled it off. "Daisuke is turning into his Taichi!"

This, Daisuke laughed at. "Think I could pull off the hair?"

"Not a chance!"

* * *

In the afternoon sun, the Rainbow Bridge didn't sparkle like it normally did in the evening. It did waver in the heat, which made Ken incredibly grateful he was on a bus where the cool air was flowing from the vents above and Minomon wasn't falling out of his pinecone from heatstroke. At least everyone had stopped staring at them. Where once he wouldn't have really cared about the attention or not, now bystanders ogling him was just uncomfortable.

Making an effort to avoid the gazes of the other passengers, he watched the bridge shift in the sun. Then, Ken paused. Heat didn't make a bridge swirl sideways. It was almost twisting, and cars continued to drive by, not even warping around it. Ken's breath caught as he watched. Was a Digimon or something coming out over there? He couldn't see from here.

"Ken-chan?"

Ken snapped his gaze away to meet Minomon's sleepy, beady eyes. "What's wrong?"

He looked back at the bridge, which was not perfectly normal, not even swaying. "I… nothing, I must have imagined it."

He decided to not look outside until the trip was over. Then his D-Terminal beeped, and he flipped it open without thinking.

"_Nice to meet you."_

There was no subject heading, and within seconds, the message had deleted itself.


	4. Chapter 4: Parallel Flips of the Coin

**_A/N:_ **Well, no Cademon in this chapter, mostly because this one was due soon. There won't be an update for this next month because other fics and Nano, but I will try to get one in August. There was a little edit in the chapter headings. This is part one. Part two of the story, where Hunters really starts to kick off, should be on or after chapter six. Here's hoping for chapter six but I'm not holding my breath on that. So, my guest reviewer, your wish was my command today. Enjoy and let me know what you think, guys!

Also: let me know if the line breaks poof again.

* * *

_Chapter Four: Parallel Flips of the Coin_

The earth crumbled as the woman passed it, and the building tumbled towards her head. Her disciple leapt and shattered it with a single punch. The woman tutted, but little more, sidestepping the rubble easily on her bare feet. She looked to the sky, frown hidden by the veil over her mouth. "Here too…" she said with a sigh. "Our King's world is dying so young."

Her companion grunted his agreement. "He doesn't have nearly enough eyes and ears," he said and she nodded absently.

"And he worries, and grieves for a human." She paused, struck by an idea. "Would you do the same, Gokuwamon?"

"For you," was the plain reply, and she found herself releasing airy laughter.

"That's a comforting thought, I suppose, but you must leave me someday."

"Someday is not today."

"No but it will be a tomorrow." She waved a hand. "We must search a little more, for the sake of the King's ideals. Then, we will tell him what we've found." Beneath her robe glowed a golden object. "I believe he'll consider it quite special."

A grunt of acknowledgement, and they were off again.

* * *

"All right," Yuu said, clicking the suitcase shut. "I think that's all of it." He brushed his blonde hair out of his face and looked up at the figure of his sister putting her bags into the slightly ridiculous looking car that the airport had sent over for her. "Are you sure about this?" Their father wasn't, but he had underestimated how stubborn his older sister got when she found a solution to something.

Truthfully, he didn't want her to go either, but he couldn't cling to her forever. He knew better.

"Not even close," Nene admitted, toying with a lock of hair.

Yuu passed over another suitcase. "Then, don't go."

"I can't stay," Nene replied, anxiously rapping her knuckles on the window. "I can't keep waiting." She sighed. "Kiriha-kun left without even waiting a month. I at least have to make sure he doesn't hurt himself or something. You know how he is."

Barely. He had managed all of three conversations with the guy without a knife to somebody's throat. "You waited before," Yuu said. "What's different now?"

He thought he knew what it was. Nobody wanted to wait, nobody could. It was one thing on a battlefield, where if you ran out of options. There was nothing to do but wait quietly then. Here, in the world with all of the civilians and the twisting schedules and bombarding of pure _stuff_, there was no way to wait.

But was there any way to look either?

"Shoutmon will tell us if he finds anything. Besides, even if we knew where he was, how would we reach him?"

Nene sighed. "I'm just going to believe that he is alive and safe, at least for the moment. We just have to believe Taiki-kun will make his way to us on his own. That's what happened the last time."

Yuu turned pink. "I wasn't exactly in the vicinity for that," he said, looking at his feet.

Nene smiled and hopped from her vantage point over to him. She reached over and mussed his hair. "I keep forgetting," she admitted, her violet eyes sparkling with relief. "Don't worry, Yuu," she said affectionately. "Taiki-kun will return to us. He has a bad habit of dropping by when people most need him. Don't worry too much and focus on your studies, all right?"

"It's not _my _grades you'll have to worry about," Yuu muttered and they both laughed. "I'll try, Nee-san," he said after all the suitcases were in the trunk of the car. "I can believe in Damemon, I can try to believe in Taiki-san again too."

Nene let out a small sigh of relief. "It's been three months," she said gently. "What's a little longer. Be good to Akari-kun, okay?"

Yuu chortled. "I'm not the rest of her brothers, all right?"

They both laughed and he gently shut the car door behind her. "Knock 'em dead, Nee-san."

She winked. "Always do."

He waved until the car was hard to see amidst the traffic, then went back into their apartment complex. In the big, slightly empty apartment,he let out a sigh that he thought could fill the living room. His sister had found a dream, found something to keep her going after everything. What did he want to do? He looked at the yellow device sitting on the coffee table, and then away from it again. He sighed.

"It was supposed to be the best game where I saved the world."

Yuu slumped on his couch. He should have known better. Games were something you could pause and play later. The Digimon couldn't press pause on a war. And he found that he was okay with that, for the most part.

If only it hadn't taken so many deaths for him to accept it.

* * *

"Shoutmon, we've found the idiot again."

Shoutmon opened one eye and groaned. Those were not the words he wanted to be woken up to. A new siege? Sure. Urgent matter in another part of the world, yeah, he could go for that. But he had to go chew out Gumdramon _again._

"Where was he?" he muttered, rolling out of bed. "Up a tower? Busting up a gang of Child thieves?"

Dorulumon shook his head, golden eyes grim. "Not sure, Cutemon's patching him up now."

"Cutemon is what?" What was the human, English phrase… "Oh _shit_." He groaned the curse word like the name of a disease. "I'm up. Little moron better not be dead."

"I don't think he's that bad off yet."

Shoutmon followed the wolf out the door. "You never know, man. Gumdramon is an idiot."

"And you're the pinnacle of intelligence yourself," Dorulumon said with a dry smirk. "Come on, let's go check on your junior."

"Hmph." Shoutmon listened to himself and then laughed. "I'm still a kid, huh?"

"Glad you noticed before i had to say it."

In the hospital wing, Cutemon sat irritably in a chair too large for him, stubby arms crossed over his muffler. His antenna twitched and he looked up at the two of them. "He's asleep," the rabbit informed his king, shaking his head. "Said nothing useful, something about a clock and a spider swallowing a bunch of Digimon he was fighting, but little else." The verbal tic slipped out towards the end and Cutemon rubbed his eyes in mild distaste.

"So he saw another disappearance." Shoutmon muttered, a bitter taste in his mouth. Damn, he really wished Taiki were around. They could find a way to get him and the others here and _solve _this stupid problem. So much for being a good king. He couldn't even get his subjects to stay put.

Cutemon jumped on his head and Shoutmon grinned, so as to avoid another high-pitched lecture. "At least he didn't disappear," he said and Shoutmon let out a low sigh.

"I'm really not sure if that's a good thing or not. He needs a real near-death experience or two."

"Don't let him hear you say that," Dorulumon muttered. "Might think you don't care."

"Cheh!" Shoutmon rolled his eyes."Of course I care. That don' mean I can be happy with what he does."

"You saved the world for Digimon like him, kyu," Cutemon said quietly. "This is the only world he knows, the safe one."

_It's not that safe, _Gumdramon thought to himself. But he turned over, and went back to sleep, bitterness in his stomach.

Just because he hadn't been in some legendary war didn't make him weak.

* * *

"I suppose it was too much to ask for the airport to be less crowded today…"

Nene adjusted her grip on her carry-on and deftly sidestepped another man in a suit. Her flight was delayed by an hour, which wasn't really a surprise considering the storm that was heading their way. She sighed and glanced at the food court. "At this point it's cheaper to get a bad bento box and be wary of food poisoning.

Her phone beeped and she stepped out of the walkway and checked it. She laughed at the message. _Are you awake? _The better question was why was he he not asleep? She typed in an affirmative and within half a minute her phone vibrated.

"Shouldn't you still have jet lag?" she asked dryly and he muffled a snort.

"I'll sleep after this call," he replied and she could almost see him pick at the strands of his pillow. "You really headed to Hong Kong?"

"Yes, that means you get to adjust your schedule again."

"Oh shut up." The line went quiet for a moment and she took the risk of walking over to her gate and sitting in one of the chairs. "So, what is it?"

"Ca-Can't I just want to call you?" he asked, offended.

Nene giggled. "You have a habit of having more ulterior motives than I do."

"...Witch."

"With pride," she said with a sly smirk she wished he could see. "So, I'm guessing you've seen something interesting while in America."

"A few interesting things," he allowed. "But I'll tell you most of them after your flight. The main one is I've seen Digimon."

"You've _what_?" She managed to keep her voice under control so only a few people turn at the noise. "Where? How?"

"_How_is what I was going to ask you," Kiriha said, serious voice turning clipped as it was wont to do when he was trying to get every bit of information out as quickly as possible. "Where is on the streets, not doing much more than disrupting some electrical circuits as they appear and disappear. It's like echoes of them more than Digimon themselves. My Xros Loader has a tendency to beep like a phone every single time."

"I bet that's murder during class," she said with mild sympathy.

He snorted. "Mostly because these things lack a mute button. Anyway, they might appear on your ends too, so I wanted you to pass it on to them."

"Will do."

Another pause. "There…. There's been nothing, huh?"

Nene sighed. "You sound like my brother. No, there's nothing. you know the second he could, he would."

"I dunno, he tends to get distracted by any cry for help…" Kiriha drawled and Nene muffled another laugh.

"That's saved our lives more than once. Let's enjoy it while we can, okay?"

"Right, right." He sighed. "You'll keep an eye out."

"Who do you think I am?" She imagined his smile. "Until later." She hung up and sent Yuu and the others a quick few texts, then set back, debating over going to get some food after all, when a shadow leaned over her. Nene jumped to attention, not relaxing at the sight of an old man, hunched over his cane.

"I'm not sure what worries me more about you, your glasses or the multicolored outfit," she said before she could stop herself.

The old man laughed. "Sharp as always, aren't you?"

"Who are you?"

He shrugged thin shoulders. "That's not all that important right now, and you know that."

"Then what is important?"

The old man smiled with chipped teeth. "Don't drop your guard. It isn't over yet. The war is over, here come the aftershocks."

_The Digimon? _"I'll be sure to keep that in mind, sir," she said with a sweet smile, raising her head to the sound of the announcements overhead. "If you'll excuse me, I have a flight to catch."

"Don't let me keep you," he said, waving one hand and hobbling away. "We'll meet again soon enough. Maybe you'll all be together this time."

He vanished into the crowd, and Nene groaned, heading to the line and texting Kiriha.

"I do so hate when _I'm _not the one spouting the cryptic nonsense."


End file.
